Seoul: Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Thursday ruled out the possibility of resuming dialogue with the US amid fresh tensions over Pyongyang’s satellite launch.
South Korea and the US have both condemned the satellite launch as a violation of the UN Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, reports Yonhap News Agency.
But North Korea has defended the satellite launch as a “legitimate” exercise of its right to self-defence.
“The sovereignty of an independent state can never be an agenda item for negotiations, and therefore, the DPRK will never sit face to face with the US for that purpose,” Kim Yo-jong said in an English-language statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, referring to Pyongyang by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim Jong-un held three meetings with former US President Donald Trump, but denuclearization talks remain stalled since the collapse of their Hanoi summit in February 2019.
Kim Yo-jong also said North Korea will continue to exercise its sovereign rights, in an apparent reference to launching several more satellites within a short span of time.
North Korea said on Thursday the country’s military spy satellite had taken photos of US military facilities in San Diego and Japan, as well as the Suez Canal in Egypt.
North Korea also claimed that the spy satellite also took photos of the White House, the Pentagon, major military facilities in South Korea and the US territories of Guam and Hawaii.
But the North has not released related satellite photos.
–IANS